But I have money!

[Food Lady]

Had a couple buy over $300 worth of outdoor stuff today. Card was declined. I HATE having to tell people that; I don't want to embarrass them. Well, this guy's worth was so tied to his money that he felt it necessary to inform me he just put thousands in and he's "got money" because he's the "superintendant of schools." I don't doubt it. It's probably just one of those cases where the amount per day is limited. But he embarrassed himself. Felt bad for the wife.

[Exaspera]

Sometimes they doth protest too much, though.

[casey13]

Have him call the number on the back of the card. I've had cards declined for reasons sucj as buying a large purchase outside of an are or unusual amount.

[bhskittykatt]

Just call the number on the back of the card. How hard is that?

Hubby had to buy a $200 part for his car once and had to put it on his credit card, which he seldom used. Card was declined. He called the CC company, informed them that yes, it was a legit charge. Got off the phone, ran the card again, and bam! Card accepted. Took all of a couple minutes.

[Food Lady]

Have him call the number on the back of the card. I've had cards declined for reasons sucj as buying a large purchase outside of an are or unusual amount.

I forgot to mention that I had him write a check instead (sometimes there's a blip in the debit system, but a check will go.) Check was declined, too, so he used a credit card. He ripped up the check instead of calling the number. I would've gladly held the transaction while he sorted it out, but I think his pride was hurt and he got sucky. Seriously, a little humility goes a long way.

[Exaspera]

One time in line at a big home improvement store our card was declined. Everything was paid up, etc., so we went to call the card co. and the next person's card was declined, too!

All of a sudden an announcement came over the loudspeaker that a satellight was damaged by a solar flare, and that it would be cash or checks only. Whew!

Why does someone who has a decline on a card or check feel compelled to tell you how rich they supposedly are? Why don't they just blame an errant solar flare?

[Sonoma]

That happened last week when I went out to lunch. Suddenly, everyone's cards are coming back declined. Fortunately, they were able to just get the card # and run it when the system was back up (I'm there every week), as I had no cash on hand.

I was worried about that happening yesterday. I was at (big, non-orange home improvement store) buying a refrigerator. I put it on my Mastercard, which has never been used for such a large purchase before. I was half expecting to need to call them to verify that it was a legit purchase.

It went through, and THEY'RE DELIVERING MY FRIDGE ON SUNDAY!!!

[Exaspera]

It went through, and THEY'RE DELIVERING MY FRIDGE ON SUNDAY!!!

Oooooh! Congratulations!! I bet it's pretty!

[EricKei]

Something like that happened with all PayPal cards (and all other banks based in their state) a few weeks back. I wanna say it had something to do with a major bank scam and/or ID theft in the state. Sucked ass for me, the PayPal card is about the only one I regularly use ...

[Exaspera]

Not trying to derail this thread, but I am constantly reminded that as powerful as our technology is, we're hanging by a thread sometimes.

[Food Lady]

I had the same thought tonight, as a couple of hours later another customer had her debit declined. But it went through when it was run as a credit. You just never know. I hate handling cash (slow, inefficient, just plain dirty), but maybe it's better.

[JLG]

I was scanning fragrances for missed markdowns. A man walks over and asks if I am marking down all of the fragrances and I said no just checking to see if some need a markdown.

Fast forward to an hour later and I get a call to the registers by an associate that needs some help. The customer she was helping ran their debit card and it declined, ran it as credit and it declined and then wrote a check and that got declined as well.

It was the man from earlier and his wife that were now checking out. He was yelling and cussing saying that he has thousands of dollars in the bank and why is nothing working. I told him that he should call his bank and sort it out. He kept saying it was us and not his bank and he finally pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and paid.

Oh and he later called the store manager to complain about it. He said I lied to him about marking down those fragrances and that I would not make the system take his card or check. He admitted to cussing me out but said that I owed him an apology

[bhskittykatt]

I had the same thought tonight, as a couple of hours later another customer had her debit declined. But it went through when it was run as a credit.

We have this happen all the time with debit cards from Alaska. Every single debit card out of that state will run as credit but not as debit. Sucks 'cause we're the southern terminus of the Alaska Marine Highway System, and we get a lot of Alaskans wanting to use debit here (fortunately most have caught on and automatically select "credit" on the pin pad).

[bhskittykatt]

It was the man from earlier and his wife that were now checking out. He was yelling and cussing saying that he has thousands of dollars in the bank and why is nothing working. I told him that he should call his bank and sort it out. He kept saying it was us and not his bank and he finally pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and paid.

Oh and he later called the store manager to complain about it. He said I lied to him about marking down those fragrances and that I would not make the system take his card or check. He admitted to cussing me out but said that I owed him an apology

You don't owe him sh*t. He's an idiot for not calling the bank and sorting out his finances. Unless you have wings and a wand and are the Credit Fairy, you can't "make" the system take anything. It doesn't work like that, buddy.

[Teskeria]

Funny thing is sometimes it isn't really a decline (I work for a cc company). Sometimes the charge never even get sent to the CC company (not the cashiers fault, the machine just doesn't really send it). really frustrating when someone's card has a couple grand available on it and the store's machine didn't send the charge for the couple hundred they want to spend there (my company sees approvals and declines in less than a minute from when the card was run usually.)